Crafts and signs

I've been having way too much fun making signs, crafts, and you'll see from my other posts...food.  Here are more items I've made ...just to share!

Explains itself!!  Home of the free because of the brave!

Mothers ...toughest and most-rewarding job ever!

Picture frames.  Painted to look anitqued then modge podge scrapbook paper over.

Garden signs!  Each sign is first painted in the color of the fruit/vegtable then painted in white outdoor paint and scrubbed so the color shows through.

Mr. and Mrs.  with cute pictures!  Flip over Mr. and Mrs. and it is Brock + Hannah!

Measure up!!

Make a blanket out of old worn-out t-shirts!  My kids feel like their getting daddy-snuggles when the blanket is wrapped around them!

Snow man made out of a tree that fell at my parents property! 

Let it Snow!!  Hang mittens, socks, hats that your little kids grow out of!

A hand-sewn "pillow" that unzips to put all the extra stuffed animals into!!

Above two pictures are for a busy-bag swap (14 people making 14 bags then we will all be able to exchange and come home with 14 different fun bags to entertain our little ones)

Mine is a two-sided placemat.  It can help with learning colors and numbers..

http://www.etsy.com/shop/AllMyGoodness

Can be made with any wedding colors, but wanted a nice look so it can also be hung at home with wedding pictures.

Green Machine Smoothie

Green Machine Smoothie 

(From Naas Elementary Health Class)

1 cup orange juice

1/2 cup pineapple juice

1/2 cup vanilla yogurt

1 banana

2 cups fresh spinach leaves

6 cupes crushed ice

Combine all in blender until smooth.  Serve immediately.

My son, Andrew, brought this recipe home from school this week.  He said it was THE best smoothie.  (And he knew it had spinach in it!)  Since my baby is iron-deficient, I really wanted to try it out!  All my kids loved it!!





Melt-in-your-mouth Snickerdoodles

Melt-in-your-mouth Snickerdoodles (or as my kids say "snickernoodles")

1/2 cup butter softened

1/2 cup vegtable oil

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 3/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cream of tartar

1/2 tsp salt

Combine:

2 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix butter, oil, and sugar until light and fluffy.

Mix in eggs.

Mix all dry ingredients together and add to above mixture just until blended.

Roll into  balls and roll into the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place 2 inches apart on greased cookie sheet.

Bake 8-10 minutes.

Chicken and mashed potatoes

 This is my husbands favorite chicken dinner.  Super easy to make and it's delicious!  One of those good comfort foods! 
I like to cook my chicken (usually frozen chicken tenderloins) in a pan of boiling water for at least an hour, if I have time. I am picky about my chicken so I like to then cut it apart and cut out any "gross" looking pieces.

Chicken Dinner

Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a pan over medium heat.

3 cups cooked chicken

1/2 cup flour

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp paprika

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp garlic powder

Mix all together.

Place chicken in a bag and pour flour mixture in, seal bag, shake to coat chicken.

Cook chicken with mixture in pan until browned to your liking...I usually cook it for 15-20 minutes, turning it over to cook both sides.

Chicken Gravy

Melt 2 Tbsp butter in pan

add 2 Tbsp flour

cook for a minute or two

add 2 chicken boullion cubes and 1/2 tsp salt, dash of pepper

Add 1 1/2 cups milk.

Stir constantly until it comes to a boil for a minute.

Mashed potatoes

I bake my potatoes in the microwave first.  Then mash them with butter, salt, milk, and cream cheese!

                                                                                

Chocolate!!

Thanks to the Food Network, The Chocolate Issue that just came out....my kids and I had fun testing out dipping different foods in chocolate!!    (Thanks to Grandma Becky for getting me the magazine...also so I would make the cover brownie recipe- which we made...pictured below! I'll save you some!)

My kids thought the chocolate with marshmallows was the best, but they actually cleared the plate...so it was all good!! Including: oyster crackers, oranges, nilla wafers, gold fish, apples, wheat things (another they really loved!), bananas...

We also made their brownie recipe called Triple Chocolate Sundae.  This issue had a few basic brownie recipes that you could make into 50 different delicious variations of brownies!  Here is what we made:

Triple Fudge Sundae

Brownie:

Melt 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips and 1 stick of butter in a pan over low heat.

Remove from heat and add 3/4 cup white sugar and 3/4 cup brown sugar.

Cool slightly.

Then whisk in 4 eggs, one at a time and 1 tsp vanilla.

Stir in 1 C. flour and 1/2 tsp salt.

Spread into greased 9 x 13 in pan.

Then sprinkle chocolate chips on top.

Bake at 325 for 40-45 minutes.

(Didn't see a recipe for their Fudge sauce in the magazine...)

So for our fudge sauce I made the sweetened condensed kind..

Hot Fudge Sauce

Melt 1/4 stick butter

1 can sweetened condensed milk

and 3 oz semisweet chocolate.

Melt in pan on low heat....do not boil.

For Ice cream we had Umpqua Chocolate Brownie Thunder!! 

VERY happy kids eating their Triple Chocolate Sundaes!  Most amazing dessert!  Hot brownie, cold ice cream and hot fudge!!!  YUM!!

Berry Best Muffins

Last summer, I made some blackberry muffins that turned out delicious! Funny thing is, while making them, I realized I was following two of my favorite muffin recipes.  I like to print out all my favorite recipes from Allrecipes.com and Epicurious, then I put them in a binder. So my two favorite recipes were side by side and I started following one and then accidently the other!  So then I had to put all the ingredients from both in the bowl....delicious!  I made a few changes to them and made it again yesterday.  (Love having frozen blackberries to make muffins all year.)  Allrecipes.com and Epicurious.com : my favorite sites!

I always have a helper when cooking! Here is my little guy, Jacob.  He loves to help out and taste test everything!  By the way, love my old Kitchenaide passed down from my Grandma Nelle. Don't know what I did all those years with out it...I use it almost everyday! (Also in the picture is measuring spoons and cup measure from her.)

Berry Best Muffins

6 Tbsp butter

1/3 cup applesauce

3/4 cup sugar

1 c brown sugar

3/4 cup buttermilk

2 eggs

3 1/2 tsp baking powder

1tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

3 cups flour

2 cups berries (I like to use blackberries

and crush them first.)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix butter, applesauce, white and brown sugars until light and fluffy.

Then add eggs and mix again.  In separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.  Alternate mixing flour mixture and milk into the batter.  Do not overmix.  Stir in the crushed berries. Spray muffin tin with no-stick cooking spray then fill 2/3 full with muffin batter.

Next make the crumble to add on top.

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

mix aall together and sprinkle a little on top of each muffin.

Bake at 400 degrees for 17-20 minutes. Enjoy!!

Almost done!! Yay!!

Kitchen signs

I love to be baking in my kitchen. I seem to spend most of my day in there between making meals for my family and baking goodies.  One night I made German pancakes for dinner. My 8-year-old thought they were so good! We were calling them German fancy pancakes, then he said...with the same beginning letters G.F.P we could name our kitchen "cafe" Good Food Please (also GFP)! Pretty creative of him, I thought, so I had fun and actually made us a kitchen sign!  He is such a sweet kid!  I was showing him pictures of food I wanted to make him from my saved Pinterest site the other night, and he said, "Mom, have I ever told you how much I love that you love finding good food to make for us! You always make the best food!"

Wood signs

Just posting some of the wood signs that I have made.  I am thinking about starting an etsy account soon so I can keep making more signs...need to start selling some!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/AllMyGoodness